Pinoy films engage Barcelona filmfest audience

BARCELONA - At the recently-concluded 11th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (BAFF) of 60 features that we attended, two films from the Philippines won minor awards — Jay by Francis Javier Pasion as Best Film in a Digital Format, and Serbis by Brillante “Dante” Mendoza with the Premio Cinematk from the Spanish TV Channel as Best Film for distribution throughout Spain. Winner of the Golden Durian for a first film went to Breathless from South Korea, and the Netpak Award went to the Hong Kong film Claustrophobia.

If there is anything that the booming Philippine independent cinema movement is achieving by its incessant participation in film festivals throughout the world, it is in significant steps towards globalization achieved through films that bare the Filipino heart and soul to an international populace.

A high percentage of 10 films from Filipino directors were invited to the festival’s various sections. Out of 13 entries in the new Focus on Southeast Asia section were six Filipino indies in the digital format — Adela, Kurap, Brutus, Jay, Now Showing and Dose already familiar to our local indie audiences. In its program notes, the BAFF salutes these entries from the Orient as one of the greatest finds uncovered by the 21st century movie-going community.

One out of eight in another new section of Emerging Talents is the docu-drama The Old Fool Who Moved The Mountains from Joanna Vasquez Arong celebrating the spirit of the old fool in the Chinese fable who would move the mountains that block the realization of his dreams.

A special section billed Filipino Cult Movies gives inordinate attention to gems of the ‘70s in the style of camp with Temptation Island and Katorse from Joey Gosiengfiao and Regal Films. We half expected to find Mother Lily Monteverde in the front row delighted at this belated international discovery of her productions first unearthed for showing at the Paris Cinema event last year.

Sadly, out of the 10 Filipino films, only writer Senedy Que (Donsol, Voices among others) graced the festival with Dose, his debut film as director. There are few perks offered to participants which could explain the lean attendance of filmmakers.

With screenings in four theaters, the BAFF attracted mostly the Catalans from Barcelona, other Spanish and Europeans, but not the Asians who appear to remain fixated on the Hollywood product, even if the success of Slumdog Millionaire was obviously saying something else. Other than ourselves, Spanish scholar Nathaniel Sisma and other scholars in the area, plus our friend English professor Richard Signey who has moved to Madrid, we didn’t see any other Pinoys either.

From the participants, only actor-director Yang Ik-June of the South Korean film Breathless and Senedy were present. Yang must have had some gut feel of his winning a prime trophy in his first attempt, that he didn’t even dwell on his backpack being snatched by thieves we were constantly being warned against. Yang’s debut film, which has already won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam this year, is a violent take on family relationships in an underworld setting where ironically enough strong feelings for one another hide beneath the ruthlessness and brutality. How much like Serbis we thought, although in a different manner.

A frustrated Senedy got over the bad copy of his film at the initial screening, when at the next screening the almost full theater audience responded warmly to his sad tale of love between a young boy (Fritz Chavez) and a gardener (Yul Servo) brilliantly tackled by the screen writer in his first directorial feature film.

Jay has already been winning accolades in the Philippines as well as in Geneva, the Bahamas, and Oslo, but the trophy from BAFF given for its sharp critique of media is still definitely another feather in the cap of Francis.

The BAFF is obviously a relatively new film festival with great ambitions. When we e-mailed Silvia Gumaches of the press accreditation, she candidly admitted, “You’ll see when you get there that we are a small but enthusiastic festival.”

The BAFF we saw was indeed bereft of pomp as celebrity trappings. It didn’t even have a red carpet for participants to display their finery and walk on. But it does have a passionate dedication towards discovering what others quickly ignore in the cinema of Asia. Proudly, in introducing the Asian Selection, it says, “We in Barcelona, thanks to BAFF, have been learning to look at the world in other ways... (in) films that help us to continue to tune into a frequency with a different wave length... (that) goes beyond what is purely optical.”

There is a Nippon Connection on Tour of Japanese silent films; a program of films influenced by video games; films on DVD — sections the bigger festivals will not have the time nor interest to dwell on.

With Serbis as the most prestigious Philippine entry, Brillante solidifies his reputation as reigning Golden Boy of the World Festival circuit especially since he is now poised to conquer Cannes for the second time.

Serbis, which we recall, left the Cannes audience in 2008 disturbed and distraught by its roughness, found the Barcelona crowd overwhelmed and delighted. From a sampling of those our friend Richard interviewed in Spanish, we gleaned that all were impressed by the film, accepting quickly its coarse, grim, visceral nature, finding similarities in customs and religious practices, and sharing complaints in gratuitous scenes that could have been shortened, as well as the confusion of many languages (Tagalog, English, Taglish, Kapampangan) assaulting the senses.

BAFF in its dedication to Asian Cinema is like a Sundance in Asia, providing opportunities to beginning Asian filmmakers to get their works screened before an alien audience where both learn from one another.

What did we learn from the films shown? That outside of a shared geographical location, similarity in skin color, and a certain degree of colonial history, many films explored the dark side of humanity but in so doing exposed violence as another expression of love; dysfunctional relationships made whole by a true and sincere caring; and perversions that oftentimes provoke hilarious reactions.

It was clearly a most fulfilling year for this dedicated band at BAFF where audiences have increased from 3,000 to 22,000, and is now included in the prestigious list of NETPAK festivals (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) joining Berlin, Rotterdam, Cannes, Venice, Singapore and Pusan. This year, as it has in the past, BAFF has successfully brought the Filipino genius once again to the forefront of the cinemas of the world.

(E-mail me at [email protected].)